Patch 4.0.1 (undocumented changes)
General * The Gnomeregan Exiles faction has been renamed to Gnomeregan. Player Versus Player * Battlegrounds will no longer close when both sides are below the minimum player requirement. Achievements * New Feat of Strength added: . * and converted to Feat of Strength. * In Dungeons & Raids section of achievements all Lich King Heroics have been put in the Lich King Dungeon tab. Classes * The price of dual specialization is reduced from 1000 gold to 100 gold. * Health regeneration uses a new formula. Outside of combat, all classes seem to regenerate 0.75% of their maximum health per second before the effects of abilities. * Mana regeneration uses a new formula. * Class buffs can no longer be applied to player-controlled pets. * Class buffs and their raid-wide counterparts have been consolidated into a single spell. When the target of the buff is within your party or raid (including yourself), the buff applies to the entire raid. Reagents are no longer required for these abilities. * Weaponskill/Defense no longer is listed in the character window and appears to be removed from the game. Likely all skills are now automatically set to their maximum level based off the player wielding them. Death Knight * Dark Command no longer has a miss chance. * Death Grip no longer has a miss chance. (Untested, based off testing with Growl and Dark Command). Druid * Bear Form requires level 15, up from level 10. It is a spell that can be purchased instead of the quest chain. * Dire Bear Form has been removed. Bear Form is now sufficient at all levels. * Cat Form requires level 8, down from level 20. * Cyclone cast time increased to 2 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds. * Entangling Roots range increased to 35 yards, up from 30 yards. * Faerie Fire range increased to 35 yards, up from 30 yards; can now be stacked up to 3 times, for a total of 12% armor reduction. * Frenzied Regeneration duration increased to 20 seconds, up from 10 seconds, also now additional increases maximum health by 30%. * Insect Swarm range increased to 40 yards, up from 35 yards; now a trained class ability, rather than a talented ability. * Moonfire range increased to 40 yards, up from 35 yards. * Growl no longer has a miss chance. * Rebirth cooldown increased to 30 minutes, up from 10 minutes, and is limited to one rez per battle or 30 min (undefined timer). * Starfire range increased to 40 yards, up from 35 yards. * Thorns now lasts 20 seconds, down from 10 minutes; damage increased by 1,400%. * Survival Instincts (druid ability) cooldown increased to 5 minutes, up from 3 minutes. Duration decreased to 12 seconds, down from 20 seconds. Now, instead of adding to health, this ability now grants 60% damage reduction for it's duration. * Wild Mushroom is now limited to 3 mushrooms, down from 5. * Wrath range increased to 40 yards, up from 35 yards. Hunter * Starter pets: ** Alliance *** Draenei: An orange moth with green wings. *** Dwarf: A brown bear. *** Night elf: A white nightsaber. ** Horde *** Blood elf: An orange dragonhawk. *** Orc: A black boar. *** Tauren: A purple tallstrider with a green neck. *** Troll: A red raptor. * triggers the pet's GCD. This may be a bug; however, it is not listed in the known issues thread. * You will be notified when your pet dings. The animation is almost the same as when your character dings. * Many pet abilities have been replaced or altered. * Low level pets now auto-level to within 3 levels of the hunter instead of 5. * Arcane Shot requires level 1, down from level 6. It is a starting spell. * Steady Shot requires level 3, down from level 50. It now replenishes focus. * Aspects are now "aura" icons above the main action bar. Paladin * Blessing of Kings now provides a 5% bonus to stats instead of 10% (and no longer affects Spirit), plus 65 spell resistance at level 80. This makes it identical to the new Mark of the Wild, and in fact the two buffs no longer stack. * Blessing of Wisdom has been removed. The mana regeneration buff is now merged into Blessing of Might. * Divine Intervention has been removed. * Divine Shield has had its duration reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, which makes it impossible to Bubble Hearth. * Divine Storm now does extra damage based on the accumulated amount of Holy Power. * Hand of Reckoning no longer has a miss chance. (Untested, based off testing with Growl and Dark Command). * Righteous Defense no longer has a miss chance. (Untested, based off testing with Growl and Dark Command). * Seal of Command has been removed as a spell. Instead, the talent Seals of Command improves other seals and gives the former Seal of Command's cleave effect to Seal of Righteousness. * Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom have been merged into Seal of Insight. * Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption have been renamed Seal of Truth. * New abilities: Word of Glory, Divine Light, Holy Radiance, Templar's Verdict. (Guardian of Ancient Kings and Inquisition are displayed in the UI, but not learnable at the current level cap of 80.) * The various resistance auras have been merged into the single Resistance Aura. Priest * Dispersion dismounts if used while mounted. Also, no longer able to disperse during certain raid events such as Lord Marrowgar's Impale or when picked up by a Val'kyr on the Lich King Encounter. * Shadowform no longer has Holy school exceptions such as Cure Disease or Abolish Disease (removed). Discipline spells remain unchanged and are still castable such as Power Word: Shield, Dispel Magic and Shackle Undead. * Power Word: Fortitude does not stack with Warlock Imp's Blood Pact, and will be overridden (same stamina bonus, untested with Commanding Shout). * Abolish Disease has been removed. Rogue * Lockpicking is no longer a manually-leveled skill. Your ability to open more difficult lockboxes will increase automatically as you level. * Poisons no longer have multiple levels, but scale like abilities do. Old poisons still work, but they do not stack in your inventory with new poisons. * Preparation has a new icon. * Safe Fall no longer produces a sound if the falling damage was negated. Shaman * The various resistance totems have been merged into the single Elemental Resistance Totem. Glyph of Healing Stream Totem combines effects of Healing Stream Totem and Elemental Resistance Totem. * Totems are no longer necessary to keep in your bags (if at all). The Air totem quest (level 30) is gone, possibly with the others. Also, this makes the quest to get the combined totem un-completable as you cannot obtain the required item(s). Warlock * Warlocks now start with an Imp Minion. * Warlock pets have been renamed due to a bug and will be fixed. * The Warlocks Ritual of Summoning spell now costs 42 mana, is now channeled instead of instant cast and can be learnt at level 42 instead of level 20. Warrior * Sunder now only stacks to 3, decreased from 5. * Taunt no longer has a miss chance. (Untested, based off testing with Growl and Dark Command). Mounts * All mounts now scale with riding skill - level 20 60% mounts will now move at 100% speed with epic riding. * The X-53 Touring Rocket can now also be used as a ground mount. * Players can now instantly transition in Dalaran with mounts that have both a ground and flying speed without remounting. Dungeons * Though not displayed in the Dungeon Finder Interface Screen, completing your first Random Lich King Heroic Dungeon each day using the Dungeon Finder will award 23 Justice Points, in addition to the 16 Justice Points earned for each boss killed. * Completing a weekly raid quest will be rewarded with 137 Justice Points. Professions * Trainer knowledgebases have been unified worldwide. Classic, Outland and Northrend trainers have learned each other recipes. Accounts without expansions will still be unable to access recipes associated with those expansions. * Herbalism and Mining give XP. The higher level the char is, the lower the received XP will be. This uses rest XP so you will get double XP while you have sufficient rest stored up. * Tiffany Cartier no longer exchanges Titanium Powder for Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Tokens; you now turn them in at Timothy Jones via a repeatable quest. * Master Riding is available from Northrend Riding trainers at a cost of , allowing all flying mounts to scale to 310% speed. Characters that already had a 310% speed flying mount pre-4.0.1 are given this skill automatically and free of charge. Note that reputation discounts apply to the trainers in the Northrend starting areas! ** The exception is the the from the meta world events achievement . While still technically a 280% mount due to Patch 4.0.1, this mount will award 310% speed to characters who do not have it for free, due to a hotfix. * Cold Weather Flying is now available to all characters at level 68 for . * Engineering-only enchants no longer have stat bonuses, but can be used alongside with general enchants simultaneously. * Leatherworking Specializations have been removed * Tailoring Specializations have been removed; specialty cloth is now always made in single units. * There is now just one kind and tier of Vellum. Old Weapon and Armor Vellums are converted to a Ruined Vellum, which can be used to create the new all-purpose Enchanting Vellum. * Alchemy Transmute cooldowns have been redesigned. Completing the transmute will now cause a cooldown that is fixed to reset at 00:00 server time, limiting you to one cooldown per day. Items * Some former Guardian Elixirs are now Battle Elixirs. * Scrolls are now considered Battle or Guardian Elixirs, and will overwrite existing Battle or Guardian Elixirs. * Most books that formerly taught class spells are now poor-quality items with no function. Exceptions include and . * has been removed (now taught by your flying trainers at level 68 for 500g). * Ammo is now poor-quality and should be vendored. The ability to create new ammo has been removed. * Some glyph items have been replaced with s, non-functional, poor-quality items. * Some gylphs have been replaced or renamed. * Numerous item stat changes: ** Armor Penetration Rating, Block Rating and Defense Rating have been replaced with other stats. ** MP5 has been replaced with spirit. ** Spell power on most non-weapon equipment has been replaced with intellect. * Wrathful Gladiator gear, with the exception of shoulders and T2 weapons and the tabard, can be purchased for honour, with no Battleground or Arena rating required (although the tooltip says that it is requires) * Pristine Black Diamond now has a sell price of 50s * Drums of the Wild have changed from a Gift of the Wild buff to a health and mana regeneration buff. * now contains 32 Justice Points instead of 2 Emblems of Triumph. * Relics now have stats rather than modifying certain class abilities. * Some relics now have sockets. (This includes old-world relics that predated the Jewelcrafting profession.) * The gold cap has been increased to 1,000,000 gold. * The original has been renamed to , to make way for the new ore that will be added in 4.0.3. * The original has been renamed to , to make way for the new bar that will be added in 4.0.3. Quests * The Horde and Alliance versions of the pre-''Cataclysm'' event quest chain are now available, starting with Earthen Ring emissaries in faction capitals. Edit: Now live! * If you must kill a mob or talk to an NPC, the name of the mob will be visible over their head regardless of user settings. User setting will return once quest is completed. * Quest:Spirits of Auchindoun no longer grants any bonus honor. * Quest:Morthis Whisperwing quest chain for druid Swift Flight Form completely removed. You can't get Essence-Infused Moonstone anymore. According to a GM, it's possible to summon Anzu without it, but it isn't true at the moment. After a hotfix, you don't need Essence-Infused Moonstone to summon Anzu anymore. He's a default boss in Sethekk Halls from now on. * has replaced . * Some quests previously offered by Thrall are now offered by Garrosh Hellscream. * The quest chain starting with has been removed. User interface * On the Character Select Screen, characters now perform an attack animation appropriate to their class every 30 seconds. i.e. spell casting or melee * Character stats are on a separate display that must be revealed on the right of the character screen. * Buttons for popup windows (talents, PvP, dungeon finder, etc.) now display the level at which they become available. * The graphics settings window has been revamped. * Zone names displayed when moving between zones are now closer to the top of the screen. * On the border of the Minimap a yellow arrow points to the closest quest area. In the Objectives frame the number of that quest has a yellow (instead brown) background. * While dead a red arrow points in the direction of your corpse on the border of the Minimap. * While dead there is a return to Graveyard button at the top of user screen. * If quest items can be looted, they will be displayed with a yellow border in the loot window.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9kFgI4FqY&feature=player_embedded * You can now activate multiple tracking abilities (Class Trainer, Auctioneer, Mailbox, etc.) including NPC and multiple profession tracking (Track Humanoids, Find Minerals, etc.) simultaneously and the minimap uses appropriate icons to distinguish them from each other; however, it still uses generic yellow dots for Find Minerals, Find Herbs, and Find Fish. * Mounts and companion pets have been moved to the spellbook. * Tooltips of mobs and objects displays quest progression of partymembers when in a party and the quest has been shared. * The character screen now displays the character's talent specialization if one exists. * The background behind the character on the character screen is now greyed. * New Guild UI and cap of 1000 members have been implemented. * If you unsheathe your weapons while dancing, they no longer get re-sheathed. * If you have FPS enabled, it is now displayed on the world map (in a different position than on the main interface) * AddOns can no longer get access to Real Names as the UI merely provides a UI Escape Sequence which is rendered as the correct name when displayed. * The Kalu'ak boat crew now have their voices follow them around when they speak. * Gryphons (the Alliance flight path type) now have their voice remain stationary. * All guards and NPC participants at the Tourney now frequently beat their mounts resulting in much noise. * Consolidate Buffs is now the default setting and has been turned on for you in your preferences. You can turn it back off of course. * A throttle has been added to all public chat channels, limiting players to two messages every few seconds. Players will receive an error message instructing them to wait before spamming sending additional chat in that channel. Other forms of chat (such as Say, Party, Yell, and Guild) remain unchanged. * Links can now be used in all chat channels. * Updated generic portraits are used for Night Elf, Gnome and Troll party/raid members who are out of visual range. * The new raid frame interface allows players to select their role within the raid (the leader/assistants can also set it for them). An option Interface allows players to be grouped together by roles. * The new raid frame interface allows colored markers to be placed on the ground. * When placing a target markers on a target, a line will now be displayed in raid chat indicating who placed which icon on what target. * The "report problem" button is gone from the Help Request window. In its place is an informational page on Account Security. You can no longer report issues to the Game Masters without speaking with one unless you are offline when your ticket reaches the top of the queue. Game Engine *PowerPC is no longer supported *It is now impossible for Windows 98 & Windows 2000 users to install World of Warcraft (unsupported since 3.0.2, however could still play on them) **It is officially "impossible" to install on Windows 2000, however there is a way to do it unofficially. (This has not been tested on Windows 98!) The game itself isn't incompatible with Windows 2000, just the Launcher requires a small piece of code that Windows 2000 lacks, so loading the game isn't a problem once you get past installation. http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic155005.html has walkthroughs on a few different ways to make it work with Windows 2000. The Wrapper DLL fix is the only one I have tested and succeeded in installing with. *The Launcher will now prevent you from accessing the login screen without an active Internet connection. It can still be accessed by bypassing the Launcher. *Cinematics are no longer included in the digital download. They can still be installed from the CDs/DVDs. World environment General * The Elemental Invasion world event is in the game files, but will presumably be activated at a later date. Edit: Now Live! * Earthquakes have increased in frequency as well as intensity. Horde and Alliance leaders are meeting to discuss the matter. NPCs * Magni Bronzebeard has new armor and weapons. * Garrosh Hellscream has a new, unique model. * Cairne Bloodhoof now wears two large totems on his back. * Thrall is now also located in Garadar (to reflect events of The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm), sitting in largest building with Greatmother Geyah. Dun Morogh * Operation: Gnomeregan has been removed. The outside of Gnomeregan is now being prepared for the gnomes' relocation. Durotar * Zalazane's Fall has been removed. Zalazane and his minions have been removed, and the Echo Isles are now being prepared for the trolls' relocation. Orgrimmar * Some of the Horde leaders gather in Grommash Hold to discuss about recent problems and new leadership. Stormwind City * Archbishop Benedictus has a new wardrobe, and is now level 80 elite (up from level 60 elite). * The Alliance leaders have gathered in the Stormwind Keep Throne Room, discussing the recent earthquakes. * Gavan Grayfeather, a Wildhammer shaman has been added to the Throne Room. He stands behind the Alliance leaders, listening. Thunder Bluff * Aponi Brightmane is now level 80 (up from level 55) and has Paladin abilities. * Tahu Sagewind is now level 80 (up from level 55) and has a new outfit. Flight Paths * Most flight paths no longer go through as many locations Water * Flying mounts can land on water, and the character can dismount and re-mount again as long as they do not move.This may be a bug. References 4.0.1